Recent research has produced evidence to suggest a strong reciprocal link between school context-specific language constructions that reflect a school's vision and schoolwide pedagogy, and the way that meaning making occurs, and a school's culture is characterized. This research was conducted within three diverse settings: one school in the Sydney…

In Australian faculties of education, retention and progression issues are paramount within the current neo-liberal climate which emphasises student degree completions. This is particularly the case in regional universities, where many students--often the first in their families to attend university--are from rural, regional and low socio-economic…

The purpose of my study was to understand undergraduate music performance students' perceptions of their experiences as music performance majors and to assess music student positionality. Music student positionality, music students' perceptions of their place in the university setting, involves music majors' perceptions of their relationships to…

The paper draws upon empirical material from a two year qualitative research project. The paper briefly outlines the key research questions, research design and data collection strategies. The following sections draw on observational, interview and journal data from the learning sites and the teachers and students who work and learn in them are…

This study examines the educational experiences of 39 First Nations youth, ages 16-20 years, from two, First Nations, on-reserve, communities in northern Ontario, who share their reflections and experiences of reserve and public schooling. We drew on the Indigenous metaphor of the "new warrior" to analyze how these youth experienced and…

This study analyzes the perceptions of Turkish and American middle school students of school and schooling by examining the metaphors they produce. A total of 18 American and 24 Turkish students were interviewed as part of this study. The results show differences in the participants' perceptions of schooling by culture. Turkish participants…

Teaching and learning online is one of several risky practices in higher education today that threaten to disfigure academics' work and identity. For many academics, accustomed to the tempo and practices of face-to-face teaching, it threatens disorientation. In this article the author examines the teaching beliefs of a computer science lecturer,…